I love how my beloved Cubbies are the sports world's equivalent to Spiderman apparently. You made a very good point here: sports nuts and nerds are essentially the same. I mean, I love the Titans, Bears, Sharks, Blackhawks, Gators, and Cubs as much as I love Batman and the Punisher (yes I root for more than one team in hockey and professional football...you gotta problem with dat?) I guess what makes a Trekkie different from a member of Cubs nation like myself is that Star Trek is fictional while sports are real and have consequences with the outcome. For instance, people bet on sports because they don't know the outcome before hand and there is a consequence of losing money or winning money. I've never heard of anyone throwing down 20K on the outcome of a Star Trek episode, but that's just me.

skylog:Wouldn't Spider-Man be more analogous to the Mets rather than the Cubs?

Spiderman isn't analogous to the Mets for one simple reason...they've won a World Series in the past century. The last time the Cubbies won a title, there was a Czar in Moscow, a Kaiser in Berlin, and the first Model T was hitting the streets. The Spiderman/Chicago Cubs analogy was made by Bob is because they are both losers: no matter how hard they seem to try, the things they desire are always out of reach.

I have never understood, not even once, how people designate which sports team to support. Why does it make any difference which rugby or football team you support? What makes any of them different? You can say you think Team A plays better than Team B, but next week and for many weeks after that, Team A might play like utter shit and yet there is still this complete support for Team A, when the most logical thing to do would be to support the winners, Team B for playing a good game. I just don't get it. Nor have i ever understood why the people who do like sports only like a certain type of sports, like baseball, but not others, like rugby. Finally, i don't understand supposed 'sports fans' who watch the stuff but don't actually practice it themselves. The kind of guys who have all the merchandise and watch it on their TV every weekend but have never once picked up a ball. Such a strange, alien culture to me.

I suppose one reason why 'sports nerds' are more acceptable are for two prime reasons. 1) Sport in general has been around far longer, and 2) There is a definite 'tribal' element to sport fandom. People get so up in arms that they can end up in fights and civil disobedience because their favourite team sucked in one particular game. People wear facepaint to show their national colours in the world cup like a bunch of savage cavemen. It's primitive tribalism. Compared to standard nerd-dom, we're arguably more 'civilised' that that, and we don't have that aggression. So when the aggressive tribes do come along, we're like herbivores standing in front of carnivores. We're naturally slotted into the 'prey' category. And since humanity hasn't got past the primal instinct of "women = go for the predator / alpha male / tribal leaders", the sports fans get all the girls, which is again another social signifier of 'achievement'. If you have the ladies, you've won the social game. That's just how it is.

All of that aside though, this was a far better episode than the previous ones Bob. It was really good to see you raise a real thought-provoking point and stay on topic. Well done.

Verrenxnon:I just wanted to say, Bob, that this was easily the best of this column's editorials so far.Your thesis was sound and interesting, your essay was on-topic, and your conclusion was appropriately inspiring.

Well done.

I wholeheartedly agree, this video was great. It was an interesting idea that made me think a more about the topic, it was funny, and managed to reach an adequate closure.

I hope he continues making videos of this quality. If he does, this could become one of my favorite series on the escapist.

I know there've only been, like, five vids, but those psych heads or whatever they're called are really starting to get on my nerves. That's just me though. On a tangentially related note, I am a nerd, and yet I cannot stand math. Not that I have a problem with someone else doing it if it means I can get a crit hit, so whatever, suppose the point still stands.

And for note, I call sports fans "jackasses". Yes I'm aware of the hypocrisy, and I love it~

SFR:I have always hated it when a sports fan refers to the team they're supporting as "we". You don't play in the God damn team. You have no influence on the team. They don't even know you. I'm a Valve fan, but when they release a game, I don't say "We just released a game!" Why? Because if I did, I'd sound like a fucking idiot. Guess what you sound like when doing that with sport teams?!*

Archaneus:There's one simple reason this won't happen and that's a non-trivial fundamental difference between nerds and "sports nerds." Nerds/geeks tend to be in the higher intellectual brackets than the average man... not even close to true for "sports nerds."

I would refer you to 4Chan and bid you good day, sir.

But in all seriousness, that's a rather broad statement, and not true in the slightest. Just because someone likes sports they're unintelligent? That doesn't really make sense.

For the record, I don't care about sports in the slightest, but I take any oppotunity to stomp all over ignorance.

MovieBob, you're so interesting when you're forming your own opinion and making unique points instead of just talking about hot actresses and sex in movies. Although I have to wonder what world you're living in where "nerds" and "jocks" can't get along (do you reside in your local highschool?).

Wow! I'm probably not the first, but I was just saying this to a friend (and tweeting this to the masses) while in a sports bar in New York months ago. We were watching football, having some beers, and overhearing some enthusiastic Sports Nerds comparing a wide gamut of player stats a couple seats down. "Sports Nerds!" My exact words! I was certainly proud at the time; at least no one I knew had said it prior.

PayJ567:Sports people are nothing like "nerds" they go out with loads of like minded people down to the pub and watch a game.

Nerds sit in cos play clothes watching anime on the internet and masturbating furiously.

I know right? You wear sports clothing to support the efforts of REAL PEOPLE doing REAL THINGS that actually require skill and commitment, not some fictional made-up shit that was only intended to make money off basement-dwellers.

PayJ567:Sports people are nothing like "nerds" they go out with loads of like minded people down to the pub and watch a game.

Nerds sit in cos play clothes watching anime on the internet and masturbating furiously.

I know right? You wear sports clothing to support the efforts of REAL PEOPLE doing REAL THINGS that actually require skill and commitment, not some fictional made-up shit that was only intended to make money off basement-dwellers.

This one is vastly superior to your previous big pictures. Well thought out and argued. Got a friend who rattles off professional athletes and their stats as if he were there when they were recorded and he jokes on his cousin because the cleanest thing in his room is his unopened x-men figurines. Tried explaining this same concept to him and he couldn't grasp it.